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Terror on the Mississippi: The Sultana Disaster, Part III

© Curtis Payne

So what was the cause of the disaster - faulty condition and bad management of the boilers or sabotage?

Louden's partner in smuggling and boat burning wrote his memoirs after the war but never mentioned the Sultana or Louden's supposed connection to it.

He did write that Louden was busy during the war amusing himself burning government steamboats, and admitted that Louden had set fire to the steamboat Ruth.

Would the boat burners have considered the Sultana a prime target?

If they were interested in causing deaths it was a very attractive target; however if they were after the destruction of military stores the Sultana would not have been a very attractive target other than the actual sinking of the boat, and perhaps a personal vendetta on the part of Mason and Louden.

Also, could the torpedo have been placed at the coaling station, and then randomly placed aboard the Sultana instead of some other boat? An act of sabotage, but not one aimed directly at the Sultana itself?

Only the destruction of the Ruth can be positively attributed to Louden, and perhaps the destruction of the U.S. gunboat Baron De Kalb. As for the Sultana, Louden had been drinking heavily when he made his confession to Streetor, and Streetor was indeed leading the witness when he asked specifically about the Sultana.

The Sultana was also one of the first boats to be equipped with a new style boiler called the Elder boiler.

The new style boilers were flawed in that they sometimes became clogged with sediment preventing the free circulation of water. Two other steamers so equipped exploded in late 65 and in 1866. The Elder type boilers were then removed as dangerous from all other boats.

Personal Vendetta?

There was a strong connection between the participants and the town of St. Louis. The captain of the Sultana, James Cass Mason, was from St. Louis as was Robert Louden, William Streetor, Thomas Courtenay (inventor of the coal torpedo), and the leader of the boat-burners, Mr. Tucker.

The captain of the Sultana had previously smuggled for the South. He had also been captain of the boat on which Louden's wife was forced to leave St. Louis.

Robert Louden was described as cold, calculating, manipulative, and in many ways purely wicked. He was also intelligent, fearless, and relentless.

He had been a prisoner at Gratiot Street Prison. Louden had been captured some 5 or 6 times and was given a death sentence for spying and mail-running, and boat-burning by a military commission in St. Louis.

The Sultana on fire, April 27th, 1865

Last moments of the Sultana

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